Syracuse, N.Y. -- The former St. Patrick’s School on Tipperary Hill would be transformed into 22 market-rate apartments under a plan presented to the Syracuse Industrial Development Agency by a developer today.

Gary Thurston, chairman and CEO of The Hayner Hoyt Corp., said the company hopes to start converting the vacant school building at 300 N. Lowell Ave. this spring and complete the work in the fall.

The company is seeking an exemption from sales taxes on construction materials and an exemption from the state mortgage recording tax. The industrial development agency scheduled a public hearing on the request for 8:30 a.m. April 17.

The school is exempt from property taxes because it is owned by the church. But Hayner Hoyt plans to purchase the building from the church. That will make it subject to property taxes. The company is not seeking property tax exemptions on the building, which is assessed by the city at $473,373.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Syracuse closed St. Patrick’s School and three other parochial schools in a cost-cutting move in 2006. St. Patrick’s Church, which is nearby, remains open.

Thurston said the company plans to keep the school’s windows, wooden floors and even the classroom blackboards in place. Chemistry tables in the school’s science classrooms will be re-used as table islands in the apartments, he said.

The school’s gymnasium will remain a gym for use by the tenants, he said. St. Patrick’s Church will also have use of the gym for youth activities, fellowship events and a fund-raising festival, according to its application with the development agency.

Hayner Hoyt plans to put 15 two-bedroom and seven one-bedroom apartments in the building. The site will be reconfigured to provide 38 parking spaces and new green space along North Lowell Avenue.

Thurston said the project, which will cost about $3 million, will save the building. The parish has continued to maintain and heat the structure since the school closed, but its boiler failed in February, raising the possibility that it would not be heated next winter if it is not redeveloped. The building’s facade has deteriorated over the years and will be repaired as part of the project, the company said.

The original, three-story section of the school was built in 1909 at the northeast corner of North Lowell Avenue and Schuyler Street as an elementary school. A two-story addition was added in the 1930s for the higher grades.